Every Friday - we post what we have shipped. This week, it was a revisit of the fundamentals. And how Nook, stablecoins - and onchain lending markets work.

We rebuilt our learning docs from the ground up to educate users earning with Nook for the first time.

I designed, wrote and built this to give everyone a clear view of how Nook works. Top to bottom. By giving everyone a sense of the principles that drive Nook, it's design, technical structure and feedback from our community.

Read more on how Nook works, from the Basics, to Safety & Risk, Tools like Earnings Calculator and Live Rates - to feedback from the Community and Testimonials.

→ http://nookapp.xyz/how-nook-works

Joey, cofounder of Nook

A key piece of feedback we have heard from our customers is diversification.

Why this is important?

Stablecoin lending earning rates are higher than bank savings rates - but people don't want all of their eggs in one basket. At Nook, we are building the ability for you to select where you want your funds to be - across multiple sources. So you choose how much you want to earn and what the tradeoffs are.

After 5 weeks of building and 7+ user sessions, we are getting closer.

What can you expect?

We are looking to build allocation to be rolled out in the next few weeks. So that you can opt into higher, newer sources, while keeping the balance ratio that works for you. Please keep your eye out for an invite to join the beta.

Joey

I'm excited to share that we have officially entered a partnership with Gauntlet.

Our customers have told us they love Nook but have always asked us - how do we earn money? It's now (officially) through Gauntlet.

Gauntlet is one of our top curators. Since launching our first vault just five months ago - we have facilitated thousands of suppliers of liquidity into Gauntlet vaults on Morpho - with over $10M moved into Gauntlet vaults over time.

This partnership is designed to help the Nook team grow to reach more customers and support day to day operations. This arrangement is primarily a win for you, our customers. With this partnership, Nook customers don’t pay fees on transactions [or their earnings. Fees are only generated when they earn]. 

More background on Gauntlet

Gauntlet is one of the leading risk managers and vault curators in onchain finance.

Gauntlet was founded in 2018 by Tarun Chitra and Rei Chiang as a quantitative research firm building simulation infrastructure for early DeFi protocols. Eight years and several market cycles later, the team has grown into one of the most established risk and curation firms in onchain finance.

That foundation is rooted in academic research. Gauntlet has published 27 papers with over 1,000 citations, covering virtually every primitive in DeFi.

Gauntlet’s work is built around quantitative risk management. The team uses models, simulations, and market monitoring to help manage how capital is allocated across onchain lending markets.

Today, Gauntlet is one of the largest curators on Morpho, with lending vaults representing more than $1.6B in TVL across 50+ vaults, 15+ supported supply assets, and 8 networks. Gauntlet also works with major institutions and platforms across crypto and traditional finance, including Gemini, Apollo, Securitize and Morpho.

That is why Gauntlet has become an important partner for Nook. Nook is designed to connect customers to more earning sources. Gauntlet’s job is to help manage the risk and allocation behind those earning sources. Together, we can give customers access to better earning opportunities without asking them to become crypto experts.

More background on how the deal is structured

The revenue share agreement is designed to be a win-win-win among our customers, Nook and Gauntlet. Revenue is not generated for us unless our customers earn. Gauntlet will credit a reward to Nook based on the liquidity supplied through Nook to their curated vaults..

[This is not an additional fee paid for by our customers]. It’s already integrated into Nook from the start. The APY displayed remains the same. Net of fees. The rate you see is the rate you earn. No hidden fees to get between you and your earnings.

This revenue is then either passed back to the customer in terms of bonuses and boosts - or reinvested in the Nook platform.

How this benefits our customer

Customers want transparency and a clear understanding of how Nook operates. 

This level of transparency is how we have connected with our customers here on Reddit and beyond - and have grown to tens of millions of dollars in deposits. So that’s why we are excited to partner with Gauntlet - but also - share this with everyone.

Joey

CEO, CoFounder of Nook

This was a big week for Nook and our customers. As we continue to develop the platform, I wanted to share a few major highlights.

• Launched a new source to our beta program above 7% APY
• Current Gauntlet source on Optimism is earning 7.5% right now
• Completed user research with 5+ Nook customers on multi-allocation portfolios
• We are continuing to build multi-allocation
• We are close to announcing our new rev share deal with our partner - more coming soon.

What's next?

We have a lot of things in development. Including multi-allocation and new sources (see above.) So we are focused on the smooth rollout of those to make sure our customers have a good earning experience.

Hope you have a good weekend ahead.

Hey everyone, Nook earnings have been on the rise with a new source launched two weeks ago.

But we are always pushing for more.

If you would like beta access to the latest source we are testing - please let us know. Please note that beta access is invite only. If you are interested please email us at team@nookapp.xyz with the title WORLD in the subject.

Hey everyone, I am excited to share that Krzysztof Gogol has joined Nook as a strategic advisor.

Kris is a leader in breaking down the rapidly evolving stablecoin lending space.

His work sits at the intersection of yield, liquidity, and protocol design, with a focus on how blockchain execution changes stablecoin lending strategies and capital efficiency. He has published research on liquidity provision, liquid staking, and MEV/arbitrage - and has worked with central banks, regulators, and leading protocols on lending market mechanism design, RWA, and stablecoin integration.

Kris will continue helping our 10,000+ users navigate stablecoin lending markets with more clarity and confidence. There are thousands of earning opportunities developing across the market every day, from BlackRock to PayPal and beyond. At Nook, Kris is focused on making yield interpretable - moving beyond headline APY to show what actually drives returns, where the risks sit, and how capital should be allocated across strategies. He recently completed his PhD at the University of Zurich, where his work covered lending markets, automated market makers, Layer 2s, and MEV protection in DeFi.

Welcome Kris. ✳️

Thank you for being a part of Nook to earn more! Joey

Hey Reddit, we are starting to open up beta testing sessions next week for a new feature I am very excited about. The team has been working hard on multi-allocation. The ability to diversify your earning portfolio across multiple sources.

Next week, we will begin one-on-one 30 min beta testing sessions - where you, the Nook customer, will get paid to give feedback on the new feature.

Spots are limited - but please email us at team@nookapp.xyz with the subject header TEST to enroll in a session.

And I will keep posting here as we roll out more updates to Nook.

Joey

Hey everyone. Not sure if this was on everyone's radar. But Trump releases a stablecoin USD1 (World Liberty Financial USD) created and operated by the World Liberty Foundation.

Below is my honest take - because I wanted to share what's happening in the stablecoin space, and how we think about listing certain assets over others.

What we know about USD1 and World Liberty aFinancial

World Liberty Financial (WLF) is a recently launched DeFi platform (2024) closely tied to the Trump family, with Donald Trump listed as a co-founder emeritus and his sons involved directly in leadership and ownership. At the center of the ecosystem is USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin launched in 2025, designed to function similarly to USDC. Backed 1:1 by cash, Treasuries, and "cash equivalents", and positioned as a settlement and lending asset across the platform.

What makes WLF structurally different and more controversial is how tightly integrated the system is across issuance, lending, and ownership. The Trump family-linked entity controls a large portion of the economics (including a majority share of token-related revenue), and the platform is building its own lending markets where USD1 is both the asset being borrowed and part of the core infrastructure.

There have also been reports and scrutiny around insider borrowing behavior, where entities connected to the project have used crypto assets (including governance tokens like WLFI) as collateral to borrow stablecoins within their own ecosystem through its lending integration with Dolomite (not supported by Nook.)

In February 2026, on-chain data shows that World Liberty Financial deposited USD1 and then borrowed ~$11.4M in USDC, with the borrowed funds quickly routed to a Coinbase Prime address — suggesting conversion into fiat or institutional custody.

Shortly after, the same entity (or closely affiliated wallets) escalated the strategy. By April 2026, World Liberty Financial had posted ~1.99B to 5B WLFI tokens as collateral and borrowed between $31M and ~$75M in stablecoins across multiple transactions.

At the same time, a separate but related treasury wallet tied to the project deposited roughly 3B WLFI tokens and borrowed ~$50.4M in USD1 directly from the same lending system.

While the exact structures vary, the broader pattern mirrors common DeFi mechanics. Posting volatile collateral to borrow stable assets like USD1 or USDC. But raises additional questions when the borrower, collateral issuer, and platform are closely linked. This includes attention on how affiliated entities may borrow against large token positions and recycle liquidity internally, which introduces concerns around transparency, risk concentration, and circular capital flows.

Why this is not available on Nook

Although this market (can) offer a high lending rate (depending on market timing) - it does not fit the Nook framework.

1. As covered above, WLFG launched USD1 and has been heavily borrowing against it - but it's not clear how the asset is secured and where the project is going long term. When we launch sources on Nook, it's because we are aligned with the creators of the assets and they are building for the long term. Without that clarity, it's not an easy decision if we should support these assets and if there will be substantive borrow demand against these assets. Without borrow demand, there are no attractive lending rates.

2. The current liquidity and TVL numbers are relatively low. There are $1.35M in deposits and only ~$138,000 in liquidity. This is common for smaller sources that do not have mainstream adoption or large institutional backers that are borrowing and lending within the source. These low levels mean that (1) APYs could dramatically shift (down) if Nook was to support it and (2) large depositors with over $100,000 would only be able to withdraw intermittently.

My honest take

As you can see I am skeptical about this project and the teams commitment to build something long term.

Market health signs are always good to reference, but the team is also interested in the human story and team behind it.

However, regardless of what I think personally about the project - the Morpho sources that Nooks connects customers are structured to automate the lending and borrower redemptions. So that lenders get paid regardless, through the selling of borrower collateral assets if needed.

If the WLFG team continues to build and make progress - the Nook team is always open to change course and reconsider. Based on our source selection framework and customer input.

What this means for you

Right now, Nook does not support this asset - and does not plan to. It is part of an isolated borrow and lending market, completely separate from the 8 networks live on Nook. But as we stated , we do not plan on supporting this unless key levels regarding adoption and usage were to significantly change.

However - always curious to get your feedback and perspective.

Joey, Cofounder of Nook

Hey Reddit. I shared this in my Sunday Update (sign up to Nook at nookapp.xyz to join) but wanted to share it here as well.

Overview: Here is what we are building next for you in Q2 2026 →

Last week - we announced that we were live with our latest earning source, the Steakhouse Reservoir market. Making it our 11th earning source launched and our 8th earning source live today in the app. 

With over $5M in deposits moved over to this new source - we continue to deliver on higher earnings through more sources. But since launch, we continue to hear additional feedback around the Nook experience. And we know we can improve upon it.

Our team reads every piece of customer feedback, combing through the details and the metrics to support it - and I'm excited to share what comes next for you and your earning sources.

Faster deposits into Nook

Currently, ACH transfers can take 4-5 business days to settle from your bank account to Nook. And it accounts for 79% of all deposits in and out of Nook. While we execute the transactions immediately - banking partners can take several days to process deposits into Nook.

We want to change this. Because we know that every second in the market counts. Because you earn every 16 seconds with Nook - and rates can change multiple times a day. Every moment you are left waiting for your deposits to arrive from your bank into Nook means time you are not earning. That’s caused by the T-5 delay from your bank and our payment processor. 

Nook is working to tackle this problem in two ways. 

The first is working with our payment processors to reduce the 5 day ACH banking delays. We can’t make your banks release your funds sooner. That takes them 1-3 days. We can, however, increase the speed of delivery with our payment processor. Depending on several factors like your deposit behavior and more.

The second is FedNow support. FedNow is an open money transfer service designed to let banks move money faster than the current ACH system (Automated Clearing House.)  FedNow is the Federal Reserve’s real-time payments network that allows banks and credit unions to send and receive money instantly, 24/7/365, with immediate settlement between institutions. Your bank has to support it for you to use it. The system was built and is operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, and it officially launched in July 2023 with a small group of early participants, expanding gradually as more institutions integrate.

The key difference from ACH is speed and timing: ACH processes payments in batches and can take hours or days to settle, while FedNow clears and settles transactions in seconds with near-immediate finality.

Multi-allocation of deposits

Since launching Nook - customers are active with their deposits. 

They want the highest rates and are constantly selecting the highest earning source inside the app. People are picking and choosing which sources they want to be in - sometimes multiple times a day.

We are taking this feedback and theme of control further. Allowing users to select not only which sources they want to be in. But allowing them to diversify their allocation. Nook will allow you to spread your deposits across multiple sources. So that you can select the right breakdown for you.

Direct access to the team

If you have any questions or feedback, you can (1) email us directly at team@nookapp.xyz or (2) schedule a 1:1 consultation with the team. If you are a Nook customer - we are here to support you. If you are considering joining Nook as a customer, we are also here to help.

Our team is available for support tickets 24/7 and consultations 5 days a week. 

What this means for you

I generally write every week about how the industry is advancing, and stablecoin lending is an untapped opportunity. However - there are still too many barriers to earning more from your idle funds. Nook is focusing on all of the problems. Faster deposits, Multi-allocation, Support and more. All to break down those barriers.

As we continue to build these and roll them out to the team - we are excited to upgrade all aspects of Nook so that you can earn more.

Joey